Skullduggery Pleasant Short Story
by ValkyrieEverdeen
Summary: I decided there needed to be more Skullduggery Pleasant books and this is what I did. Valkyrie and Skullduggery get assigned to inspect a prison and that's all I'm giving away. You will have to read it to find out.
1. Prison Inspection

Valkyrie:

I walk along the rough concrete footpath with my hands in my pockets and nothing to do this morning. No cases, no assignments, no bad guys running around. It been like this for weeks now and Im seriously disappointed in all the bad guys out there. They better be planning something big so Skullduggery and I can stop them, save the world and have some fun hitting people again.

Then there's a buzz in my pocket. I reach for my phone. Skulduggery's calling maybe we've finally got a mission.

"Hello" I say "Do we finally have a fun assignment?" I ask

"Yes we do" says Skullduggery. A grin spreads across my face

"What is it? Who do we have to get?" I ask excitedly finally something to do

" We have to go and inspect a prison to confirm the safety of it to the Sanctuary " says Skullduggery. I groan my grin fading

"What was the point of making me exited for that? How is that a fun assignment?" I say

"I didn't want to disappoint you. You wanted a fun assignment so I said the assignment was fun. And it is its a very important job Valkyrie if the prison isn't safe, some major bad, bad guys could break out"

"But we would just capture them back and put them in prison" I complain " and we would get something fun to do" I say

"Yes but prevention is better. I will pick you up from your house in a few minutes" says Skullduggery and he hangs up.

I sigh and head back to my house.

I'm standing out the front of my house when a black Bentley parks out side of it. I open the door of the passenger side and climb in.

"Hello" says Skullduggery

"Hi" I say back "so what makes this prison special enough to need to be inspected by us?" I ask

"It holds not the people who have done the worst but those with unstable powers. That's why it needs to be inspected for safety" says Skullduggery. I can tell that he is still trying to get me to think this will be fun.

As we arrive at the prison. A square single storied building not very impressive from the outside. We are greeted by the warden a man named Razor. Razor is tall, with a shaved head, very muscular and has a scar across his right check. Very intimidating. Razor welcomes us inside with a hoarse voice. We look around the small room with a few desks and waiting chairs.

" All the prisoners are kept under ground" Razor explains. Skullduggery nods at him and Razor leads the way down a echoing metal staircase. As I walked down I feel all the magic in me drain away I hate the feeling but don't say anything about it. At the bottom of the stairs there is a metal door. Razor opens it and there is a hallway. And on ether side there are cells running along all the way down the corridor. I hear growling coming from the cells as I come closer to look at them I see a man with red spikes running down his spine. A woman with blue skin long claws and sharp teeth. A woman with wolf like ears sticking out the top of her head and yellow eyes. A man covered in scales who's running around in circles in his cell. A creature with a human shaped face but is more like a blob made out of green goo. And more strange looking people.

Razor reaches a door at the end of the hallway and walks through it into a large room. The room is divided into half's by a glass wall on the other side of the glass wall is a girl a with tangled blonde hair hanging in mid-air with chains tied around her hands and feet. The chains seemed to be extracting a orange glow out of the girl. The girl was unconscious.

"This girl is an elemental, a very strong one. But she only focused on the element of fire she skipped air. She became extremely strong with fire but then her power took over her and she became unstable. This is why elementals should practice different elements other than just one. So that the elements balance each other." Said Razor "now if she gets even a small breeze of real air she will catch on fire that is why we are pumping fake air into her cell"

"Well thanks for leading me in here" says a voice from behind me. Razor, Skullduggery and I whip around to see Sanguine standing there with a smirk on his face.

Skullduggery goes for his gun but the floor cracks below Sanguine and he sinks through holding a device in his hand.

"He has a power holder! the only thing that can stop him from losing his powers when he walks in this building." Says Razor.

They look around trying to find any cracks in the walls where Sanguine could show up. Then cracks appear in the wall of the cell the girl is in. Sanguine steps out of the wall and bringing with him fresh air. The girls head snaps up and she opens her eyes. Her eyes aren't really eyes but it fire where her eyes should be. Skullduggery goes to shoot Sanguine through the glass but Razor stops him saying that would just let more air in and her whole body will catch on fire. Instead Razor orders to have sleeping gas filtered in through the cell and instantly a green gas comes though the vents. Sanguine takes a deep breath when he sees the gas and starts to undo the chains on the girl as the chains go the girls hair catches on fire but she is now asleep. Sanguine carries her over to the wall and they disappear through it.

We all rush into the main hallway where the fire girl (who was now fully on fire and looking more like a small comet coming to Earth) had set all the prisoners free. Skullduggery shot at her but the fire melted the bullets before they could reach her. She still noticed though. The fire girl looked at Skullduggery with her flaming eyes and out stretched one hand toward him. A massive fire ball as big as the hallway shot toward them and they had to dive into the now empty cells to avoid it.

I grunted as pain shot up the shoulder I had landed on and get up to see if she is still attacking us but she had disappeared. I look at Skullduggery who had gotten up as well. There was no noise and as we got out side Sanguine, the fire girl and the rest of the prisoners had disappeared.

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**Authors message:**

**What do you think? You like it? Not sure if its any good so I won't write the next chapter until I get some replies and suggestions on how I could make it better. Thanks for reading (^-^)**


	2. The Hide Out

Valkyrie:

Skullduggery and I head toward the Bentley.

"How did they all get away?" I ask Skullduggery I look at him as I open the car door.

"I don't know" said Skullduggery

"I might have an idea" said Razor. I look around and find he has followed us out to the car. "One of the prisoners. He can slow down time. He usually walks around in circles in his cell. Only it looks like he is running."

"Is he the one with the scales?" I ask.

"Yeah that's him" says Razor "if you want to know about any of the prisoners they are all on this paper" he hands me a pile of paper and I take it.

"Thanks" I say. I sit in the car as Razor walks back into the prison. I put the paper down on the chair behind me as Skullduggery drives off. "So where are we going now?" I ask.

"We need to report this to the Sanctuary then we will go to investigate further." He says.

After a long boring meeting with the counsel of elders Skullduggery and I go to his house to look over the paper with all the prisoners. We both had read through the paper and now know the abilities of all the escaped prisoners when Ghastly rang Skullduggery saying they had a lead. They have a picture of Sanguine outside a old house and are instructed to go there as soon as possible.

When we arrive at the house we see how broken down it is. You can't really call the gate a gate, but more like a pile of wood. Some of the roof tiles have fallen off and vines have grown around the outside of the house. As we walk up to the door I see it has been bashed open and there is moss growing around the door frame. We walk inside and it looks like a wind storm has been through here. Everything is a mess. Furniture is knocked over, fragments of light bulbs on the floor, ripped paintings and what troubles me the most is that the necromancer ring on my finger has turned ice cold.

"Skullduggery I have a bad feeling about this place, my ring is freezing" I say. Skullduggery turns around and looks at me. He turns his head on the side.

"Valkyrie when have you ever had a good feeling about going into a potential bad guy hide out?" Skullduggery says. He turns around again and continues walking.

"Right" I say under my breath.

We go down a small flight of stairs and at the bottom is a metal door to the cellar. Skullduggery opens it slowly and steps through what looks like a solid wall of shadows. When I follow him in I see that on the other side it's a well lit, white corridor stretching out in front of me. As we walk down the corridor careful not to make any noise, past the doors on ether side we start to hear voices coming from the door at the end of the corridor. When we reach the door Skullduggery leans on one side of the door frame and I lean on the other side. Skullduggery puts on finger to his teeth and makes a quite shhh sound so only I could hear. I nod and he pulls out his gun and faces the door ready to kick it open.

Sanguine:

Every thing is going perfect. I had under estimated these people. They are stronger then I thought. I sit back in a chair as a man nick named Genius with a massive head and ridiculously thick glasses shows and talks us through the plan. The woman next to me is a shape shifter. She is beautiful with her long dark hair and green eyes. But I don't even know what she really looks like. We call her Aphrodite. A man called Thorn who has spikes running down his back can create spikes out of his hands. Green goo guy called Blob, can get through any crack or gap. And more. But my favourite one would have to be Flame, a girl with amazing fire power, who catches on fire when she meets real air. Genius created a device that just fits on her tooth that gives her fake air to breath in so she doesn't catch on fire unless she turns it off by tapping her jaw twice.

Genius had made a plan to bring the faceless ones back. The great gods who where forced out of the planet many years ago. The old Sanguine wouldn't do this. But I'm not him any more. At that moment the door was kicked open and the skeleton detective walked in holding his gun followed by his partner Valkyrie Cain. I smiled as my lips turned black and dark veins showed up all over my skin. I let the remnant in side me show.


	3. The Fight

Valkyrie:

"You are all under arrest" said Skullduggery pointing his gun around the room. Sanguine just laughs. That laugh sends a cold shiver down my spine.

"Do you really think you can beat us? Look around!" Sanguine says gesturing to the room. "Your outnumbered detective" he says. Skullduggery points his gun straight at Sanguine.

"Surrender and no one gets hurt" says Skullduggery. Sanguine just raises an eye brow. A girl with long dark straight hair and eyes that glow pink, raises her hands to her temples. Her light blue dress sways slightly in wind that I can't feel and she looks at the gun in Skullduggery's hand. She frowns and drops her hands. I recognise her as the girl who can attract metal to herself.

"Plastic gun" says Skullduggery. I smile. "Now this is your last chance to surrender." He says.

Sanguine smiles hands in pockets. Out of the corner of my eye I see Thorn quietly approaching, ready to attack Skullduggery by surprise ( I know their names because of the paper). Thorn turns his hand into a massive red knife sort of thing, identical to the spikes on his back. I turn and bring my hand up in a diagonal slash across my body sending a wave of shadows crashing into Thorn and knocking him to the ground. Sanguine is too shocked to notice that Skullduggery has raised his gun in the air bringing down the handle of the gun on top of Sanguines head knocking him out. I run over to Skullduggery, fighting off people as he hand cuffs Sanguine.

I see Ghastly coming through the door I smile as I try to punch a guy with super speed and scales. The super speed guy known as lightning punches me across the jaw and I stagger back a bit holding the slide of my face. Skullduggery grabs his fist just as he is about to hit me again. Skullduggery hits him hard and knocks him out.

"Try to knock out as many as possible" says Skullduggery "that way we can put them back in prison." Ghastly walks over slowly and looks at Skullduggery while Skullduggery is trying to knock out a girl with super stretch powers and is trying to hit him with her stretched out arms while keeping her head away. Eventually he throws a fire ball at her head and she backs away screaming trying to put it out. Ghastly walks over to Skullduggery and punches him hard across the face smiling. I take a glance at Ghastly just before I knock out a guy with ice powers by using air to knock him into the wall. I see Ghastly eyes and they are bright green instead of his normal brown. I throw I fire ball into Ghastly and he staggers back away from Skullduggery. The image flickers and we see its really Aphrodite.

I turn around to face a girl with wolf ears and yellow eyes turn into a over sized wolf. I hear Skullduggery hit Aphrodite. She lunges and scratches me across my cheek. I feel warm blood running down my face. I send a wall of darkness towards her as she jumps at me again. The wall hits her in mid air and she is thrown to the ground unconscious. I look around the room and Skullduggery, Wolf girl, Aphrodite, Sanguine and I are the only ones here. Everyone else had escaped while Skullduggery and I where fighting.

"Dam" I say "They did it again. Well most of them" I say looking down at our three unconscious captives. We had knocked out more people then these three but some how they still got away.

"Are you alright?" Skullduggery asks. I touch my cheek where the cut is still bleeding.

"Yeah I'm fine it's not a deep cut" I say even though it still stings. We walk out to the Bentley dragging Sanguine, Aphrodite and Wolf girl along with us. We shove them into the back set of the Bentley and drive to the Sanctuary.

Sanguine:

The last thing I remember was being hit hard on the head by that dam detective Skullduggery Pleasant. When I woke up my head was throbbing where Pleasant had hit me. I found myself in a bright room with nothing in it but a desk and two chairs on either side of it. I was bound by ropes holding me in one of the chairs. The one facing the door. Then Skullduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain came in to the room. Pleasant took the seat at the desk placing a file on top of the desk and Cain leaned against the wall in the corner, half in the shadows .

"So" said the detective "lets begin the interrogation shall we?"

"What are you and your friends planing to do?" Asked Skullduggery.

"Why would I tell you?" I answer. Stareing back into his empty eye sockets.

**10 minutes later**

This has been going on for a while now but I still haven't said anything. Skullduggery opens the file on the desk and reads a little bit.

"Hmmm obviously you're not going to say anything. Sooo... Valkyrie lets go interrogate Aphrodite." Pleasant gets up to leave. Dam, Aphrodite has been captured. She will tell anyone anything if she thinks they will help her, in this case set her free. I can feel the remnant inside me coming out. Just as Pleasant opens the door and leaves, the remnant rushes to Cain and slithers down her throat inside her. Cain shudders as the remnant forces its way down. Her arms and neck go slack and she slouches. Kind of like a robot when they are turned off. Then she looks up at Sanguine and smiles with black lips. Then the remnant disguises its self and she walks out the door.

**Authors Note: **

**Sorry it's not very long. The next chapter will be longer. Please review! please give your thoughts on the story, what you want to happen and that stuff in review it would mean a lot thanks! **


	4. Possessed

Valkyrie:

I see the remnant's black shadowy form rushing toward me, with its claws reaching out to me. Then it's slithers its way down my throat. I shiver as it forces its way down.

My body aches all over. I'm lying on a soft bed some where. I can hear talking around me.

"Contain it! Don't let it get away!" someone says. I hear a loud bang like someone hitting something. There is tinkling sounds as if something metal has been dropped.

"Quick grab the serum!" another deeper voice says. I hear quick foot steps and then a faint noise of rushing air.

I slowly open my eyes and I squint as I look straight into a bright light. I lift my head up slowly. I see I'm lying down in a hospital bed wearing a thin hospital gown. I recognise the room as the sanctuary's infirmary. There are three men in white doctors cloaks and white, hard plastic masks with no straps and covering there mouth and nose. I guess the mask stops the remnant from getting to control them. I look around to see a metal stool on its side and tools scattered around it. When I look back at the three doctors I see two of them holding up a large glass sphere big enough for a person to squeeze inside. Inside the sphere the remnant was unconscious. The third doctor a strong looking man with a square jaw, blue eyes and blonde hair was holding a now empty syringe. He takes off his mask and puts its on the table next to my bed. I sit up with my feet off the bed and look at the three doctors.

"Hello detective Cain. Good to see you are awake. These are my two assistances Mason and Omar. I'm doctor Neron." Says the blonde one.

"What happened?" I ask.

I put my hand to my throat as I remember the remnant attacking me. My eyes widen.

" I didn't attack anyone did I?" I ask now worried. I could never forgive myself if I had badly hurt one of my friends.

"Don't worry no one was badly harmed" says doctor Neron. I let out a sigh of relief and the knot that had formed in my stomach loosened up.

" Detective Pleasant will see you soon. He will explain everything. You should get dressed into these. There is a room over there you can go in to get changed." Said doctor Neron. Mason (I could tell by the name tag) a tall, balding man handed me my black clothes and Neron pointed me towards a door near the tray of spilled tools.

The room was like a mini hotel room. It had a single bed, a bed side table, a closet and a bathroom. I quickly changed out of the hospital gown and into my black protective coat, a dark purple T-shirt and jeans. I walked out running my fingers through my knotty hair. I really wanted to find out what the hell happened. Doctor Neron guides me outside where the Bentley is waiting. I walk out to the Bentley leaving Neron at the door of the sanctuary. Skullduggery is waiting for me leaning against the car. I walk up to the car and Skullduggery walks around the other side and climbs in as I get into the passenger seat. Once we are both in the car I start the conversation since Skullduggery is being unusually quiet.

" Skullduggery what happened?" I say turning to him as he starts to drive off. He sighs.

"You where possessed by a remnant. The same one that possessed Sanguine. It's been taken out now obviously" says Skullduggery. "It's now going to be locked in a sort of prison, made specially for remnants" he says.

" I mean what did I do" I say glaring at him. He knows me well enough to know what I meant and right now he is just delaying the inevitable. He sighs again as we pull up at a traffic light. He turns and looks at me.

"Valkyrie the _remnant_ inside you broke out Aphrodite, Wolf girl, Sanguine and some other prisoners too as distractions. All before we could get any information" Skullduggery says. He looks back at the road as the light turns green.

"Right now we are going back to their old HQ to see if we can find any clues" he says. I feel like an ice cold hand has griped my heart.

"It's all my fault" I say "there are escaped prisoners, Sanguine and his lot can continue on with there plans, we don't have a single lead apart from the old HQ which may or may not have already been scavenged-"

"It's not your fault. You had no way of controlling the remnant." Skullduggery says.

The rest of the trip is traveled in silence, I can't help noticing though, that Skullduggery looks a little bashed up. But it's hard to tell when he is a skeleton.

Skullduggery:

I walk into another interrogation room. This time Aphrodite is siting in the chair instead of Sanguine. I hear Valkyrie come in the room behind me and I start the interrogation.

"So, Aphrodite. Will you mind telling us what it is that you and your friends where planing to do?" I say.

Aphrodite opens her mouth to answer. Then she sees something behind me and closes her mouth and sniggers. If I had a face I would be raising an eyebrow right now. I turn around to see Valkyrie and she punches me in he jaw. I notice Valkyrie has a smile on her face, as I get up. I see the dark veins and her black lips and realise she's got a remnant inside her. She lifts me up using the air and throws me against the wall. I grunt as I slide down the wall and pain shoots though my spine. Valkyrie sends out sharp shadows and cuts through the chains holding Aphrodite. Aphrodite smiles, jumps up a runs out the room.

I try to stand up but Valkyrie sends a wall of shadows to knock me down. If she was an enemy I would shoot at her. But I can't shoot Valkyrie. Valkyrie sends another wall of shadows into me and bashes me against the wall again and again not leaving me with enough time between blows to defend myself. My vision became blurry and I passed out...

I hear feet running outside the room. I get up slowly so I don't fall and run out the room gun in my hand. All the prisoners are escaping. I only manage to catch a few since most of them have already left. I find Valkyrie standing outside with her back to me. I creep up behind her and hit her with the handle of my gun. She's knocked out. I take her to the Sanctuary's infirmary where they can get that remnant out of her. I decide to never tell Valkyrie what she did while possessed by that remnant. Knowing her she will blame herself or everything.

**Authors Note:**

**What do you think? Like it? Hate it? Please, please, please rewiew!**


	5. Attacks

Valkyrie:

We walk out of the old bad-guy hideout, with our arms full of files and maps that we had scavenged. It was lucky for us the place hadn't been re-visited by our enemies. I dump the paper in the boot next to the pile Skulduggery has brought out. My arms feel strangely light, now that i have gotten rid of the paper. I get into the car and Skulduggery drives off. I quietly hum a song that's stuck in my head. It's late so I get to go home and sleep while Skulduggery sorts through the files. The Bentley pulls up outside my house just in time for dinner.

"I'll call you when I find something" says Skulduggery.

"Thanks. Bye" I say closing the door.

Skulduggery waves goodbye and drives off. I sneak around the side of my house to the spot under my window. Using the air, I push myself up to the open window and climb through. My reflection is siting at the desk doing my homework.

"Nearly done" says the reflection.

Still in school uniform, the reflection finishes writing and puts down the pen. She turns around and smiles at me, I give her a nod, the reflection walks over to the mirror and steps inside. I touch the glass and memories come flooding into my mind, sorting through the new memories while I look at the mirror. The girl I see looks different to the reflection. First of all I'm wearing my black protective clothes instead of a school uniform. Although I was wearing protective clothes at the time, there is a red patch of angry skin on the back of my hand from when Flame through that massive fire ball at us back in the prison. After I get changed I walk down stairs and have a nice normal dinner for once. Dad talks on and on about some guy at work who apparently nearly killed him with a nail gun. Mum is pretending to be interested in Dad's story, to keep him happy. Alice gurgles happily in her high chair and occasionally throws food on the floor. I just sit there listening and watching them. Sometimes I join the conversation, always being careful to hide my burnt hand under the table.

After dinner I have a quick shower and get into bed. I rest my tired eyes and drift off into a dreamless sleep.

Genius:

"First we take out those who will stand in our way. We can not have any interruptions while part two of the plan is in action" I say

Valkyrie:

I wake up when I hear a bang outside the window. I hear voices and then a car drive off. It's still in the middle of the night. I get up out of bed, slip on my protective jacket and boots. I slide on my necromancer ring and walk quietly over to my window. I see a woman in a black long dress with long sleeves and black cloth wrapped around her head with a space for her eyes. The whole thing makes her look like a ninja. She quickly runs past my window and I loose sight of her. I slowly open my window so it doesn't make any noise. My heart is pumping in my chest. Who is she? Why is she here? I slip through the window and use the air to slow my fall, landing softly on the ground. I look around for the ninja like person. A jet of black comes out of the trees and crashes into my chest, I yell out in pain as I stumble back. I bet if my jacket wasn't zipped up I would have broken a rib or two. The woman comes out of the trees. Her fists are surrounded with a black glow that's shimmering slightly. I regain my balance and send a wall of shadows at her. The woman laughs as she sends another jet into the shadow wall breaking the wall into pieces. She quickly fixes me with a cold stare.

"Hello Valkyrie Cain" she says smiling.

"Who are you?" I ask.

The woman laughs and slowly walks forward.

"I am Nyx." She says as she pulls the cloth away from her mouth to speak properly. She stops only a meter or two away from me.

"Nyx... Nyx... thats the Goddess of the night?" I say. My hands curl up into fists. I don't even know why I'm talking when I should be busy hitting her. Nyx smiles.

"Very good. You obviously know your Greek mythology" says Nyx.

Nyx quickly lifts up her arm and a black jet shoots from her hand and hits me. This jet is stronger and lifts me off my feet. I grunt as I fall on the cold grass. I quickly scramble to my knees and dive out the way of another jet of black. I gather the shadows around me to shadow walk. I appear behind Nyx and grab her around the throat, but not tight enough to strangle her. I pull her down so she is bending over backwards. Nyx claws at my arms trying to get free. I guess she needs to practice hand-to-hand combat. Holding Nyx with one arm around her neck, I click my fingers, summoning a ball of fire. Holding the ball of fire right in front Nyx's face, her eyes widen in fear and she stops struggling.

_The next day_

I shove a now hand cuffed Nyx into the Bentley along side an unconscious man wearing a long black trench coat. It turns out, Skulduggery had been attacked as well. Skulduggery and I drive off to the Sanctuary to put these two back in jail.

"This guys is at least three different kinds of stupid" said Skullduggery jerking his skull towards the unconscious man. "When he turned up, he saw me reading the files, he says, 'Mr Skullduggery thir, tose files will not tell you bout our plans'. I tell him that we'd stolen files from the old hide out and I am sure that they will be useful. 'Mr Skullduggery thir, the plan to bring back faceless ones is not written down anywhere, Genius will not allow it! Coz they are too secret'. He said that word for word, seemed very pleased with himself" says Skulduggery.

"Wow" I say.

"I didn't think it was possible for someone to be that dumb. I guess I was proven wrong" i say while holding back laughter.

Back at the sanctuary, the interrogation that followed was very successful. We found out how they were going to bring back the faceless ones. They planned to do it tomorrow, at the same farm as last time, using a teleporter who was locked in the prison. We also learnt a little history about the faceless ones.

Each faceless one represents a branch of magic. There is one for water, earth, fire, air, necromancy, teleporting, future seeing (sensitives) etc. There are thousands. They are going to use Flame as an anchor to the fire faceless one. Then that faceless one would lead out the other gods.

And then follows the end of the world. The faceless ones rule. Unless we stop them.

**Authors Note:**

**Thanks for reading. Please tell me if the black trench coat guy was funny because I dont write funny stuff that often. Keep reviewing, Thanks **


	6. Nightmares

Valkyrie:

Skulduggery instantly starts making calls. He orders for cleavers to be set up around the farm, with fire proof clothing and for an anti-teleporting spell cast around the farms property boundary.

Since it was nearly midnight Skulduggery drove me home so I could get some rest for tomorrow. I tried not to think about the upcoming battle. I hoped beyond hope that Darquesse wouldn't appear and as I drifted off into sleep I heard Darquesses voice in my head. She only said four words.

"Don't count on it"

_Running_ _as fast as my legs could carry me I ran at full speed through the forest. The faceless one let out a maniac laugh as it chased after me. It was quickly closing the distance between it and I. Just as it was within reaching distance of me, a dark figure came out of the trees in front of me. The person raised their fist ready to punch. I ran right past them and their fist connected with the jaw of the faceless one. I stopped running and turned around as I saw the faceless one stumble backward and to its knees. The new comer walked over to it and with one fluent motion, snapped the god's neck. The person turned around and I saw their long black hair and dark eyes. _Darquesse_. _

_"Hello Valkyrie" she said._

_The forest around us went up in flames at her words, as if her just talking could cause chaos and destruction. My eyes widen in fear at the sight of the surrounding flame but it doesn't come near us. I watch as the fire turns the faceless one's body to ashes. _

_"Behind you" says Darquesse. _

_This statement takes me by surprise as I hear something rushing towards me. I spin around and whip out my shadows to what ever is there. The body drops to the ground as they are beheaded by the shadows. I gasp as I realise the person is Ghastly. I hadn't even meant to make those shadows sharp, it was meant to just create a wall so he would bounce off it. I look up to see Skulduggery standing just behind Ghastly's body. He looks frozen as he stares at me in shock. he turns around and using magic to part the flames, runs of into the distance. I hear a laugh from behind me._

_"You see? We make a good team" says Darquesse. _

_I spin around to see her smiling at Ghastly's lifeless body. I'm filled with cold furry. How dare she?! How dare she even suggest we are a team?! Then the anger evaporates. But then I did kill him. I killed one of my best friends. And now my other best friend doesn't want anything to do with me. Maybe I am like her. I hear cold, evil laughter as Darquesse closes in and I'm surrounded by darkness as she overtakes my body. And I let her._

I sit up with a sudden jolt as I awaken from the nightmare. I'm sweating and tangled up in the sheets. I feel over my body as if to try and find some mark that she has taken control. I relax as I realise I'm still me. I untangle myself from the sheets and walk quietly over to the door. I carefully open the door making sure not to make any noises. I walk slowly towards the bathroom as the memory of the dream replays in my head. I walk inside the bathroom and use a damp hand towel to wash my face. Ghastly is alive, you didn't kill him, Skulduggery is still your friend, it was just a dream, I say in my head while looking at my reflection. I am nothing like Darquese, I don't kill for fun. I keep saying these things in my head as I stand there, looking at the person in the mirror who could be the cause for the destruction of the world.

"Steph are you in there?" Comes my mums voice from the other side of the door.

"Yeah, give me a sec" I answer.

I give my face a quick last wash before going over to the door and stepping out of the room. Mum is standing there in her dressing gown and slippers.

"Are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost. I heard you coming down the hallway." Says mum.

She wraps an arm around my shoulder and pulls me into a hug.

"Yeah, just a bad dream" I say

"You want to talk about it?" Asks mum

She steers me toward the kitchen as she speaks.

"Um, I hurt someone I cared about, badly" I answer.

I wish I could just tell her everything, about magic and Skullduggery and Darquese. But I couldn't, so I settled with leaving out the magic part of my dream. Mum sat me down on a chair in the kitchen and started making hot chocolate while listening.

"My best friend didn't want anything to do with me" I say while watching mum work around the kitchen.

"And the forest that I was in went up in flames because of one person, and in the end I ended up working in a team with them." I said as Darqueses evil laugh rings in my ears.

Mum sits down opposite me on the table and hands me a mug of hot chocolate.

"Well it's ok now, your fine and you didn't do anything bad" says mum while sipping on he hot chocolate.

I smile at her and slowly drink. She doesn't know that more half of the things I do involve people getting hurt.

We both sit their with our hot drinks and talk, mostly about school. After we are finished our drinks we both go back up to bed. I crawl under the blanket and drift off into a dreamless sleep.

**Authors Note:**

**Sorry it took a while, I wasn't sure what to write. Sorry about antsy spelling or grammar mistakes. Please review and tell me what you think. Was Darquese intimidating enough?**


	7. New Toys

Valkyrie:

BEEP BEEP BEEP

"Argh" I let out a groan.

I turn over, whack the top of the alarm clock and it turns off. I sit there letting my muddled brain try to wake up and remember what day it is. Um... It's a school day isn't it? Yeah. I should let out the reflection. I should let out the reflection anyway so I can go meet Skulduggery. Oh crap. Faceless ones. Darquese. Flame. Ugh. I can't believe a few days ago I was wishing for some bad guys to pop up. Now I've got them, I'd rather they go away. I drag myself over to the mirror and let out the reflection.

"Put these on" I say throwing my school clothes at the reflection.

It just nods and starts to take off its pyjamas. I get dressed in my normal black protective clothes and check my phone for any messages. There's just one.

I'll pick you up at 9:00

-Skulduggery

I look over at my alarm clock.

8:37 am

I sigh, nerves are ruining my apatite so I just send the reflection down to the kitchen to pretend to eat breakfast. I sit in my room playing angry birds to pass the time. After fifteen minutes I get bored of flinging birds at green pigs with no bodies. I sneak down stairs, making sure not to let anyone see me and take a packet of biscuits.

It's hard to swallow because nerves have made my mouth dry but I know how bad it is to fight with an empty stomach. Ugh I'm thinking about the faceless ones again! I mean, it will be harder then last time. One, the sceptre is lost in the other dimension so we can't use that. Two, this time they have a whole army of escaped prisoners.

I hear the soft purr of a car engine out side and I stick my head out of the window to see a black Bentley pull up outside of my house. I throw the biscuits on the bed and jump out the window using the air to slow my fall.

I'm lost in my thoughts as Skulduggery drives off to who-knows-where. My head snaps up every time we stop at a light. When we finally get there, I jump out of the car without a word and I'm surprised to see we have arrived at the sanctuary.

"What are we doing here?" I ask Skulduggery.

"We're going to pick up a few special weapons that have been imported from other sanctuary's around the world. The Elders finally convinced them to lend us a hand since if we don't stop these guys, the whole world is in trouble not just Ireland" says Skulduggery.

I simply nodded to show I understood. I'm surprised they didn't send troops over, instead of trusting us with these weapons. They finally trust us!

We turn down a stone dark corridor into a room lit with old fashioned candles in brackets. The large room is stocked full with wooden storage boxes, some of them half open. There are people all dressed in black, with dark sunglasses and tight jackets that flare out from the waist to the knees. As these people walk around searching the boxes, their boots make no sound at all on the cold stone floor. Skulduggery walks up to the closest person, a woman with dark skin and long, straight, dark brown hair tied back into a ponytail. She had her back turned to us as she searched a box full of what looked like mini, metal frizz bees.

"What are you doing here?" Skulduggery asks.

The woman's image flickers and in the blink of an eye she is facing Skulduggery.

"We Mr. Pleasant, are agents of the Sanctuary's of the world." She says.

She lowers her head slightly and takes off her glasses revealing stunning blue eyes. The agent folds her glasses and places them in her pocket before lifting her head and continuing to talk.

"The other Sanctuaries delivered these weapons to you on one condition, that we get to come too. But your elders did make it very clear that we had to leave as soon as the job is done and that we can not interfere with Ireland's sorcerers." The agent added the last part with a scowl, clearly disapproving the elders request.

I guess I was wrong, they still don't trust us. The woman turns around and addresses a small but strong looking man with black dread locks.

"Sphinx, can you equip these two with some weapons?"

)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(

Two hours later I'm at the farm ready for a fight. I have a belt full of the metal disks that look like frizz bees and give an electric shock strong enough to knock a person out cold for five hours (along with protective gloves made by Ghastly to protect me from the disks). A thick bracelet on each arm that shoots poison darts. A small very light back pack that's hardly noticeable until you turn it on, when turned on it sprouts wings like a birds and gives the user the flying speed of an eagle. I have small chips inside my gloves that double the power of my elemental abilities. And most importantly, I have Skulduggery and Ghastly at my side, as we stand in a line just in side the cloaking spheres circle, waiting for the army of prisoners to show up.

Then I hear a shout behind me and I turn around to see them making there way towards us with Flame in the lead, burning as bright as the sun.

**Authors notes:**

**Cliff hanger :) **

**Please review! I don't care if the review only has one word in it, as long as it means something, I'm happy :)**


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